What's Sherlock Holmes doing in New York's most Fenian pub?

That's the intrigue at the heart of Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes
Adventure, the debut novel from journalist and historian Terry Golway, and the
question Irish Stew podcast cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee set out to answer
before a packed, raucous house at Ernie O'Malley's on the first of June.

A Staten Island native with a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Rutgers and two decades
of political reporting at the New York Observer, Golway has written more than a
dozen acclaimed works of nonfiction. But fiction, he tells us, unlocks something
facts alone cannot: "You can learn as much about history through a novel as you
can in a history book."

His novel imagines Britain dispatching the world's greatest detective to infiltrate
the Irish American revolutionary underground of 1885 New York, a mission
rooted in a real and largely forgotten chapter of history. "The original crime is
based on something that actually happened," Golway explains. "Several Irish
Americans were going to try to blow up London Bridge…instead they blew
themselves up."

Holmes's investigation pulls him into the orbit of real historical figures, none
more compelling than John Devoy. In a dramatic reading brought brilliantly to
life by actor Mick Mellamphy, Devoy records in his diary what Charles Parnell
had told him when they met: "The American people are now the arbiters of the
Irish question,” to which Devoy replied, "I almost had tears in my eyes when I
heard those words. That was exactly what we in New York wished to be, the
arbiters of the Irish question."

And what does Holmes make of the Fenians he encounters? After infiltrating New
York’s Irish revolutionary underground as an itinerant fiddler at Clan na Gael
gatherings, Sherlock observed, "The Fenians who inhabit the back rooms of New
York's clubhouses and taverns bear little resemblance to the crude caricatures
portrayed in some less reputable newspapers. Formidable not because of their
capacity for mayhem, but because of the power they yield over the production of
memories."

Fiddler Eileen McLain provided the evening’s musical accents while Mick
Mellamphy served as producer. Past Irish Stew guests Peter Quinn, Larry Kirwan,
and Maura Clare were in the house as were Black 47 co-founder Chris Byrne and
Irish American Writers & Artists president Liza Engesser.

LINKS

TERRY GOLWAY

• Website
• Substack: Observer
• LinkedIn
• Book: Terror From America
• Amazon: Terror From America

ERNIE O'MALLEY'S

• Website

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 19; Total Episode Count: 160

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When Frederick Douglass left Belfast in 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, he declared: "Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast." That remarkable statement from a Black abolitionist finding radical welcome in a 19th-century Irish city is the beating heart of North Star, the immersive musical and theatrical experience that Northern Ireland-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer Kwame Daniels brings to New York's Irish Arts Center, June 3–21.

Irish Stew cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee met Kwame at the Irish Arts Center a few days before opening night and recorded this episode in the IAC Library

He relates that his journey to Belfast began in a Ghanaian household in East London, where identity was worn proudly inside the home and navigated carefully beyond it. "As soon as we entered the house again, it was absolutely back to the background, the roots, and the culture," he recalls. "But outside, there was almost a code-switch going on. We were firm in our identity, and yet we were also aware of our surroundings and how we had to move within them." That same fluency served him when he arrived in Derry in 1997 and found a city divided along lines he didn't yet understand. Music became his passport across the sectarian divide. "I was bringing in sets of decks (the equipment DJs use to play, control, and manipulate music). That's the conversation, all the other conversations come out of that."

Kwame relates that Douglass's Belfast story with his evocation of finding a home in the city hit him with the force of revelation. "A Black man, an enslaved man on the run in 1845 and that's his response to being in Belfast. That has to be the starting point for us to reset."

The result is a 77-minute production, one minute for every year of Douglass's life, an immersive experience fusing hip-hop, jazz, gospel, classical, and electronic music with spoken word, choral arrangements, and the honest voices of young people from both Belfast and New York. "You're going to be presented with a level of musicianship that is extraordinary, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen."

North Star runs June 3–21 at the Irish Arts Center, tickets at irishartscenter.org.

Next up from Irish Stew, Fresh Stew LIVE with Terry Golway on his new thriller Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, recorded before sold out audience in the Malachy McCourt Room at Ernie O’Malley’s Pub in NYC with the fiddler Eileen McLain and actor Mick Mellamphy enhancing the experience.

LINKS

NORTH STAR

• Irish Arts Center info and tickets
• Instagram

KWAME DANIELS

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

ORGANIZATIONS

• Bounce Culture
• Solab

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 18; Total Episode Count: 159

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While Team Irish Stew preps for its Fresh Stew LIVE before a paying (!) audience on June 1, past guest Sean Granahan and The Floating Hospital he leads are gearing up for June 2, the evening of their 160th anniversary Summer Gala. Given the charity's deep roots serving Irish and other impoverished newcomers to New York, John and Martin are revisiting their conversation with Sean to shine a fresh light on the Floating Hospital and its mission-critical fundraising effort.

Sean is a Pennsylvania-born lawyer with Mayo and Dublin roots who has spent two decades leading the Floating Hospital, a charity founded to provide basic healthcare to the Irish and other destitute arrivals crowded into New York’s first slum, Five Points, where tuberculosis was grimly called "the natural death of the Irish."

Today the Floating Hospital is New York City's largest healthcare provider to families in homeless shelters and domestic violence safe houses, caring for 30,000 people annually across pediatric, mental health, and dental services.
Sean notes that since its origins 160 years ago, The Floating Hospital has stood on its "three-legged stool" of meeting immediate needs of displaced people, providing essential health education, and delivering care to its neighbors in need.

The charity's colorful maritime era saw ships taking kids on fresh-air harbor cruises while delivering vaccines and health education, a chapter paused after 9/11 when their vessel, the Lia, was retired. After 20 years at the helm, Sean still dreams of sailing again, saying, "The ship is magical. If you want to get 500 kids vaccinated, all you do is say, 'We're going out on the ship on Friday,' and you'll have a thousand."

A volunteer stint keeping the then-struggling organization afloat rerouted Sean's career from corporate law to community service. He and his staff continue navigating funding threats and political headwinds to serve the city's most vulnerable families.

Now we can help, through attending the Floating Hospital Summer Gala or providing a donation to support the organization that helped so many Irish and other newcomers survive and thrive in New York.

FLOATING HOSPITAL LINKS

• Website
• Summer Gala Tickets
• Giving
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Blue Sky
  
  

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 17; Total Episode Count: 158

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